Wednesday, July 20, 2016

Thursday, July 14, 2016

My visit to Pacific Bonsai Museum, Seattle

Pacific Bonsai Museum, situated 23 miles south of Seattle, is an unforgettable place to visit, enjoy and learn the living art of bonsai.

Nestled amidst towering conifers, Pacific Bonsai Museum features traditional and contemporary bonsai with the elegance of a fine art museum.

The collection boasts over 100 bonsai trees from China, Japan, Canada, Korea, Taiwan and America, 60 of which are on display, and the rest held in reserve.


Weyerhaeuser Company, one of the world's largest private owners of timberlands, opened the collection in 1989. At the end of 2013, Weyerhaeuser gifted the collection to the non-profit Pacific Bosai Museum.

Many of the trees are well known, featured in books and magazines, several have won awards, and many are works by famous artists.

I had an opportunity to visit this great museum. When I visited the Pacific Bonsai Museum on 9th July 2016, I saw an unusual combination of bonsai and painted skate decks (deck of a skateboard). The skate decks, painted by urban muralists, replace the traditional hanging scroll used in bonsai display.

In Japan, the traditional focal point of tokonoma is the bonsai. The scroll has the power to draw the viewer into a deeper state of mind.

The 'skate deck scroll' in the bonsai display works together with the 'accent plant' to establish a specific story or idea.





Tropical Bonsai in Glasshouse




Outdoor Bonsai


Saikei showing the juxtaposition of European Mountain Pine with Japanese Coastal Spruce
Bonsai, accent plant and painted skate deck, which takes the place of the traditional scroll
100 year old Trident Maple bonsai originally from Japan